Adam Howard Talk

Nick’s facilitation work on climate change events at the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) and with the Carbon Neutral University Network

Picture the scene…. You have 40 people in front of you, mostly young, all highly motivated to work for a sustainable world. Students and staff from Masters courses at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, mid-Wales.

You are all in the Centre’s amazing rammed-earth-built lecture theatre. Each person there has volunteered to spend a day learning not from a lecturer at the front of the room – but from each other, about how we can build pathways to a sustainable future for Britain.

There is no agenda in sight. This is an “Open Space” workshop. What do you do next? You might be tempted to ask – with a slight note of panic – where the hell is the agenda?

Nick pointed out that the agenda for the day depended entirely on what, as the workshop participants, we wanted to bring to the table. He invited offerings.

There was, as I recall, about a minute where nothing happened. Nick held his nerve. 10 minutes later, we had 16 workshops listed on the timetable for the day. All themes that people wanted to explore with each other.

The day was rich in learning. There is a graphic record of the day, which I’m happy to talk to people about afterwards. [Gesturing to slide on screen.]

This happened in 2016; now fast-forward one year.

[Change of slide – to the cover of the “Changing Systems, not just Lightbulbs” guide.]

This time, the group facing you is a mix of students and academics from universities across the UK gathered here at the University of Sheffield, and the question is,

“What roles can our universities play in the great transition to Zero Carbon?”

A two-day event to find out. As the facilitator, Nick began with an introduction that was no doubt scary to some, “I have to warn you, I have a background in drama.”

He got us started with some games, which were pitched just right. Even the most serious academic in the room was smiling… The weekend saw us all work together as equals, whatever our social or professional status.

After the event, Nick encouraged us to think was beyond academic reporting. A year later, this is the result [waving a copy of the Guide] -

“Changing Systems, Not Just Lightbulbs; building pathways to zero carbon in Higher Education: a guide to what works”

If you are interested, we have some available, and contributions will go to the causes supported at this celebration event.

There is a facilitator’s saying, which it seemed to me Nick lived by,

“We all have something to teach, we all have something to learn.”

I had come to a point of asking, in my own life, “what next?”

One of the last things Nick said to me, that has really stayed with me, was

“Why don’t you do something wonderful?”

Well, what could that be…? I can tell you, it’s a very good question to ask yourself.

In meeting and opening to one another, our lives are enriched, and this seems to me to be at the centre of Nick’s work, and of his legacy.